Today, we got a bunch of new materials in, including cds. We got Glee, Vol. 2! Just in time for the show to come out in Japan. ^_^ By the way, getting cds shelf-ready is a large pain. You know that shrink wrapping and those peel-stickers that never actually come off? Imagine doing that 30 times in a row. It makes getting the book records into the system a breeze in comparison. Actually, that would be easy if the gremlins let the internet flow for more than 10 minutes at a time.
In other news, I'm still on the easy paperbacks. It may take a while to finish. And, starting next week, I'll be working one night a week until late. While that means I don't start until 13, I do have a feeling that it will wreck havoc on my sleep schedule. Even on the weekends, the birds, sunlight, bugles, and jet fly-overs tend to wake me up a little after 6.
25 January 2010
24 January 2010
From academic to teddy bears, all in the same day.
Last weekend, I went to Tokyo proper, to go visit a few old haunts and as an excuse to get out of Ebina. First up was Sophia University. On the severely small chance that you don't already know, I studied abroad there for a semester. It's apparently a very good college, to the point where Americans on base act impressed that I went there. It's like going to Tokyo U., but for people who want to know languages; it's also frequented by children of the Yakuza, making it very safe to attend. Popular reactions to hearing that's where I went have been "honto ne?" [really], and "Sugoi!" [wowgood], although "...damn, you're smart," was definitely the most amusing. What they don't know is that it was the only Japanese school my college had a program with, since we were required to go to Jesuit colleges, and I didn't even take an entrance exam. So what you should know right now is that this school is a magnet for ridiculously smart Japanese people, and a ton of foreigners (like 100...wow). Being there was a bit like going back to your undergrad place 3 years later... everything's familiar but you recognize no one. I saw one guy I could have sworn was the Norweigan guy from my religion class, but then I heard him speaking Russian. Not so much him, no. The foreign component must be growing; during the hour-ish I was there, I head people speaking German, Spanish, Russian, American English, British English, Australian English, Japanese (duh), Chinese, and something that was not Russian but was also Eastern European. I also saw a gaggle of nuns heading into the library and watched two professors debate their ideas over ice cream, outside. It was maybe 40 degrees. I got there just in time for lunch rush, and since I was not going to wait in those lines to deal with than amount of people, I ate combini yakisoba. It was like old days, me being lazy. I may not have loved all the classes and the school itself at the time, nor do I now, but you have to admit that it is pretty. And, man, I still love that cheap, poorly-made yakisoba.
Rufus decided to see what the course electives and programs offered are. Since it's almost spring, people are preparing for graduation, and newcomers are looking for what classes they will take or what programs they may want to enter. Because of this, there was a shop downstairs selling the graduation kimono. Girls, by the way, wear pink over darker pink. I have no idea what boys wear since it wasn't displayed. Unless they wear pink...
The main gate, which hardly anyone uses since it's on a side street. Yeah.
The view from the side gate's entrance way. I do not miss running down this pathway to get to my morning class on the opposite side of the campus; not at all. The second building on the left, by the way, is the library, while the one you can only just barely see in the back houses the largest cafeteria and some classrooms.
The path running alongside the sports field on a hill. By the way, that branch is low. Don't smack your head/neck. I had to duck pretty low to get by myself and I'm short even in Japan.From there, I went to Harajuku. There are no pictures, since I spent my time drooling at Kiddyland, one of the best stores in existence. http://www.kiddyland.co.jp/en/ They now have a floor dedicated to Studio Ghibli, which if you know me, turned into a serious issue. That brings us to Rufus' new friend, the littlest Totoro, the big version.
Good god, is that store amazing. One day, when I am a millionaire librarian, I will go on a shopping spree there. It is five floors of cute. There is also a floor dedicated to Snoopy, and another where they play The Simpsons in Japanese, which is weird, by the way. I could literally talk about the store all day, but I'll spare you and just tell you that you NEED to go there if you ever get out to Tokyo, even if you don't like cute. It carries everything from Gegege no Kitaro to Gundam fighters to a four-foot-tall Totoro to Hello Kitty to earphones shaped like cars to The Very Hungry Caterpillar bento boxes to Moomintroll. So I went there. I was there long enough to necessitate leaving Harajuku so I could see the park while it was still light. So...on to Yoyogi Park.
I love that park. I love it more than I love Kiddyland. I may even love it more than I love melonpan. My hour there didn't do it justice. I will be back on a weekend when it is warmer and give the day to that park, where skateboarding businessmen hang out with Rockabillies, goth lolita, Rastafarians, and classical musicians. It's a place that has a shrine (of course), several ponds, a museum, and is a forest in the middle of Tokyo. Think Central Park, but not as scary and much, much cleaner with far more trees. Also sacred, because, the park is literally on sacred ground. Here's the gate into the park from Harajuku. This is the side of the park with the shrine, by the way:
They have a very large rack full of barrels of wine from around the world. This one is from France. The bottom sign in Katakana reads: "domenne kare."
Ever wonder where Totoro got the idea of the giant sacred tree? These trees are tiny, compared to some. 
From the shrine into the park. The shrine gates, followed by tori gates. Those doors, by the way, are about half a foot thick.Sadly, it was getting dark and, you're welcome mom, I decided to leave before that happened. So, I headed out, being cheap and deciding to leave by way of Yogogi-Uehara instead of Harajuku since it's closer to where I live. It was a bit of a hike, but it's ok. I saw parts of the park I'd never visited before. On the way out, I passed the Tokyo Equestrian Club. That's where I saw this:
I just had to take a picture. There is no way the sign-maker didn't know exactly where that came from. The rainbow font and trotting pony make this sign, in my opinion. I think I'll leave you to ponder that sign. Next time, I get around to the onsen, Sagamino, and a bird park I found by wandering around random neighborhoods.21 January 2010
Ebina in all its glory, with some talk of books
You know how I promised to write about Ebina? Yeah. Later. First, here comes more library adventures!
As you know I am cataloging things, including new things. That means I had my first adventure in adding new titles to the collection and actually putting them on the 'NEWLY ARRIVED' shelves. I think the whole process is supposed to take maybe 10 minutes per book, but I was being slow. It took me far longer than that to retrieve the records off-database, convert them into the database, run report, go back and change ID #s/call nos, stamp and date every book, place in tattle strips, print and add on new call no. labels, look up lexiles then print stickers for those, reinforce with tape if needed, and add the bright orange piece of tape to each before handing the receipts (dated and stamped) to Y-san and putting the stuff out. Hopefully, I'll get faster. I'm excited to say that we got in Going Bovine--I've wanted to read it since the summer. Now to find out if I'm eligible for a library card here. I might need to be sponsored...
I also created a display for Black History Month today. And by that I mean that I looked up some books highlighting the spirit of the holiday, Coretta Scott King award-winners, and playaways, dvds, and cds to go along. Then I printed up a sign and dismantled the 'Award-winning Books of 2009' display to put the new books in its place. It only took an hour because the catalog kept crashing. Did I mention it crashes a lot? Well, it does for me, since my location has internet-sucking gremlins. So, when I try to work on the catalog records for my big, big, big, project, it can take me up to half an hour for a single record, if everything goes wrong and the system is slow to come back up/refuses to believe it's kicked off the internet. But that just means I get to look at awesome titles like 'Mommy, Why Did Jesus Have to Die?', part of a long series of very Christian donated books, for longer. There's also one about why the family doesn't celebrate Halloween (hint: pagan and the devil will have your soul). Really, I'm enjoying my work; it feels nice to lose myself in OCD-ness for hours.
But then I also get to do things like help with storyhour, where the kids are adorable. Thankfully, less than 30 showed up this week, but they got to make snowmen out of paper after winter-themed books and play-songs. I helped one girl spell 'Frosty' (her snowman's name) and was rewarded with a giant THANK YOU, MS-SAN!! Another kid helped her neighbor spell his name in Japanese and wrote hers in both Japanese and English, to show one of the volunteers she could. All the kids are so quick to learn languages, it makes me jealous.
And now, Ebina: Where Superman supports the Prius!
Ebina is a very industrial city; there are car dealerships and large buildings not for offices or homes everywhere. The streets are unsafe to walk in because of the large amounts of traffic, and the sidewalks are split with poles/trees to keep bikers from going too fast. There are Pachinko parlors by the train station, including the not-so-subtle Gorilla Pachinko. There is a giant gorilla climbing the building, and another standing on top of it, while the whole thing is screened with gorillas. It has the feel of a miniature golf course/B movie set from the outside, and I will not be going inside to see how it compares to casinos.
There is also a one-story grocery store about 20 minutes from the base, and a Book-Off, the best book store chain ever. Everything is second-hand and everything is Y105. For those of you keeping track at home, that's a little over a dollar in American terms. Which leads us to sidetrack #1: Guess the book. Answers are provided at the end. I, to no surprise, was not able to walk out of the store empty-handed. I'm sure eventually I'll be literate enough to read these, right?
Book #1: Level Easy
and, from the inside: 
Know what those are?
Books #2: Level Medium (unless your name is Cami).
Book #3: Level Hard
Aren't they pretty? You don't win a prize if you guess them all, since I will forget to give it to you, but you do get to act superior to those who didn't guess correctly.
End of sidetrack! Back to Ebina...
I wandered around for a while, and found a nice little residential area full of little store that were closed because it was Sunday, a small square, and lamps which I assume are lit at night. There was also a smaller grocery store there, which had different types of teas. I'll let you know how the Azuki green tastes ^_^ There's also a park off of the main drag, which has a baseball field, some walkways, a playground, and some paths. I decided to eat my snack-lunch and read there a while since that's a good idea in 40-degree weather. So, I watched an elementary? baseball team practice, then found a bench in a corner to sit. There was an old guy in a nearby bench. Within five minutes, there are 6 old guys surrounding me, chatting about nothing and everything (old guy 2's dog--it was wearing a sweater by the way, old guy 3's shumai, old guy 1's job, the economy, the foreigner sitting in their spot, the base, the baseball team....). I was literally stuck and it was slightly awkward. Eventually old guy next to me decided that he was bored of listening to old guy 4's kids and asked me, in English, where I'd gotten my book. He got very excited when I answered with [America] and asked whether I lived on the base. It turned into a small conversation in shitty English/shitty Japanese. He works and lives on-base, it turns out, as a firefighter and hopes that I get to see more of the city. He also suggested I go to the areas around us, a subtle way of saying that Ebina is a bad representative of Japan. I actually hope I will see him again, since he was nice. On the other hand, I've since seen three of the other old guys on the streets and I presume that they meet in the same place every Sunday to bullshit and eat 7-11 Shumai, so going to the park again would accomplish that, I suppose. They know all know that the foreigner understands them now, so it may be a bit awkward...they weren't using the polite language to talk about me.
I ended up going home before seeing too far, since all I saw was industrial for several miles in all directions, but I do need to explore on the other side of the train station. I was recently made aware through eavesdropping that there is an onsen (public bath) over there by a grocery clerk on the base. This made me very excited, and he drew me a map. So, this weekend, I am thinking Onsen, as well as seeing the side of the city that has a McD's and yakisoba place. To me, that means there will be less factory and more shops, houses, and maybe even a だんご（dango） stand. I have an obsession with dango to the point that I even stooped to buying it at the grocery store. What's dango, you ask?
Tastes much better than it looks here, I promise.
It's dumplings made from rice flour skewered on a stick. The ones I've had are coated in mitarashi, which Wikipedia tell me is "a syrup made from shouyu (soy sauce), sugar, and starch." It's kind of like crack on a stick, but then, crack appears to be a common ingredient in Japanese snacks. I, for example, am currently eating puffed corn shaped like those rolly-polly bugs because it is delicious (and not bug-flavored). And this:
This is a (squished...) bread that is absolutely wonderful, stuffed with azuki beans, some green-ish beans, and black seeds of ?, and made from buckwheat, if the color is anything to judge from. I hope that it at least isn't as bleak as this half of the city, since I may have to spend a lot of time away from here if that is the case. Up next, Sophia and other Tokyo-proper areas, as well as why I should not be allowed anywhere near a store called Kiddyland.
Answers: 1=Harry Potter, 2=Kekkaishi, 3=Howl's Moving Castle
As you know I am cataloging things, including new things. That means I had my first adventure in adding new titles to the collection and actually putting them on the 'NEWLY ARRIVED' shelves. I think the whole process is supposed to take maybe 10 minutes per book, but I was being slow. It took me far longer than that to retrieve the records off-database, convert them into the database, run report, go back and change ID #s/call nos, stamp and date every book, place in tattle strips, print and add on new call no. labels, look up lexiles then print stickers for those, reinforce with tape if needed, and add the bright orange piece of tape to each before handing the receipts (dated and stamped) to Y-san and putting the stuff out. Hopefully, I'll get faster. I'm excited to say that we got in Going Bovine--I've wanted to read it since the summer. Now to find out if I'm eligible for a library card here. I might need to be sponsored...
I also created a display for Black History Month today. And by that I mean that I looked up some books highlighting the spirit of the holiday, Coretta Scott King award-winners, and playaways, dvds, and cds to go along. Then I printed up a sign and dismantled the 'Award-winning Books of 2009' display to put the new books in its place. It only took an hour because the catalog kept crashing. Did I mention it crashes a lot? Well, it does for me, since my location has internet-sucking gremlins. So, when I try to work on the catalog records for my big, big, big, project, it can take me up to half an hour for a single record, if everything goes wrong and the system is slow to come back up/refuses to believe it's kicked off the internet. But that just means I get to look at awesome titles like 'Mommy, Why Did Jesus Have to Die?', part of a long series of very Christian donated books, for longer. There's also one about why the family doesn't celebrate Halloween (hint: pagan and the devil will have your soul). Really, I'm enjoying my work; it feels nice to lose myself in OCD-ness for hours.
But then I also get to do things like help with storyhour, where the kids are adorable. Thankfully, less than 30 showed up this week, but they got to make snowmen out of paper after winter-themed books and play-songs. I helped one girl spell 'Frosty' (her snowman's name) and was rewarded with a giant THANK YOU, MS-SAN!! Another kid helped her neighbor spell his name in Japanese and wrote hers in both Japanese and English, to show one of the volunteers she could. All the kids are so quick to learn languages, it makes me jealous.
And now, Ebina: Where Superman supports the Prius!
Ebina is a very industrial city; there are car dealerships and large buildings not for offices or homes everywhere. The streets are unsafe to walk in because of the large amounts of traffic, and the sidewalks are split with poles/trees to keep bikers from going too fast. There are Pachinko parlors by the train station, including the not-so-subtle Gorilla Pachinko. There is a giant gorilla climbing the building, and another standing on top of it, while the whole thing is screened with gorillas. It has the feel of a miniature golf course/B movie set from the outside, and I will not be going inside to see how it compares to casinos.
There is also a one-story grocery store about 20 minutes from the base, and a Book-Off, the best book store chain ever. Everything is second-hand and everything is Y105. For those of you keeping track at home, that's a little over a dollar in American terms. Which leads us to sidetrack #1: Guess the book. Answers are provided at the end. I, to no surprise, was not able to walk out of the store empty-handed. I'm sure eventually I'll be literate enough to read these, right?
Book #1: Level Easy
and, from the inside: 
Know what those are?Books #2: Level Medium (unless your name is Cami).
Book #3: Level Hard
Aren't they pretty? You don't win a prize if you guess them all, since I will forget to give it to you, but you do get to act superior to those who didn't guess correctly.
End of sidetrack! Back to Ebina...
I wandered around for a while, and found a nice little residential area full of little store that were closed because it was Sunday, a small square, and lamps which I assume are lit at night. There was also a smaller grocery store there, which had different types of teas. I'll let you know how the Azuki green tastes ^_^ There's also a park off of the main drag, which has a baseball field, some walkways, a playground, and some paths. I decided to eat my snack-lunch and read there a while since that's a good idea in 40-degree weather. So, I watched an elementary? baseball team practice, then found a bench in a corner to sit. There was an old guy in a nearby bench. Within five minutes, there are 6 old guys surrounding me, chatting about nothing and everything (old guy 2's dog--it was wearing a sweater by the way, old guy 3's shumai, old guy 1's job, the economy, the foreigner sitting in their spot, the base, the baseball team....). I was literally stuck and it was slightly awkward. Eventually old guy next to me decided that he was bored of listening to old guy 4's kids and asked me, in English, where I'd gotten my book. He got very excited when I answered with [America] and asked whether I lived on the base. It turned into a small conversation in shitty English/shitty Japanese. He works and lives on-base, it turns out, as a firefighter and hopes that I get to see more of the city. He also suggested I go to the areas around us, a subtle way of saying that Ebina is a bad representative of Japan. I actually hope I will see him again, since he was nice. On the other hand, I've since seen three of the other old guys on the streets and I presume that they meet in the same place every Sunday to bullshit and eat 7-11 Shumai, so going to the park again would accomplish that, I suppose. They know all know that the foreigner understands them now, so it may be a bit awkward...they weren't using the polite language to talk about me.
I ended up going home before seeing too far, since all I saw was industrial for several miles in all directions, but I do need to explore on the other side of the train station. I was recently made aware through eavesdropping that there is an onsen (public bath) over there by a grocery clerk on the base. This made me very excited, and he drew me a map. So, this weekend, I am thinking Onsen, as well as seeing the side of the city that has a McD's and yakisoba place. To me, that means there will be less factory and more shops, houses, and maybe even a だんご（dango） stand. I have an obsession with dango to the point that I even stooped to buying it at the grocery store. What's dango, you ask?
Tastes much better than it looks here, I promise.It's dumplings made from rice flour skewered on a stick. The ones I've had are coated in mitarashi, which Wikipedia tell me is "a syrup made from shouyu (soy sauce), sugar, and starch." It's kind of like crack on a stick, but then, crack appears to be a common ingredient in Japanese snacks. I, for example, am currently eating puffed corn shaped like those rolly-polly bugs because it is delicious (and not bug-flavored). And this:
This is a (squished...) bread that is absolutely wonderful, stuffed with azuki beans, some green-ish beans, and black seeds of ?, and made from buckwheat, if the color is anything to judge from. I hope that it at least isn't as bleak as this half of the city, since I may have to spend a lot of time away from here if that is the case. Up next, Sophia and other Tokyo-proper areas, as well as why I should not be allowed anywhere near a store called Kiddyland.Answers: 1=Harry Potter, 2=Kekkaishi, 3=Howl's Moving Castle
17 January 2010
生田!!!! You're my favorite 'live rice field'!
Yesterday I decided to go visit Ikuta, my old home. To that, I had to get on the Sotetsu line, go to Ebina, two stops away, then transfer to the Odakyu line and head up the 7-ish stops to Ikuta. Very easy in theory. I've ridden the trains a billion times; unfortunately, I almost always had my super-awesome Suica card of magically getting tickets and now I have none of those, plus my station, Sagamino, decided to post everything in Kanji. Yay. Luckily for me, there was a Pasmo card-creator and some nice random Navy guy who informed me of this when he saw me staring at the train fare map with what has to have been a wonderful *confused* face. So now I have a Pasmo!
It's like a Suica, but without the penguin mascot. Still confused? This is like a prepaid debit card for trains. Instead of buying a ticket to a specific place, I stick a bunch of money on the card, and smack it on the train gates, where it tracks where I go and deducts the money from my card. I can stick more on at almost any train station. Most people carry them in their wallets and just whack those against the gates, but mine's huge, so I need to find a smaller case or something for it.
Anyway, once I got my card, I headed over there without any problem and began my picture-taking frenzy to make up for all the pictures I didn't take a few years ago when I actually lived there. I apologize in advance, since some of this will likely only make real sense to a few of you, but that's ok with me. I just reeeeaaalllly want to show you all my old home, so I took over fifty pictures of it; that's normal, right?
The station entrance, something I saw almost every day for four months. Odakyu lines has a new logo. Isn't it spiffy?
I found the hair salon, Harmonia, where I once had my hair dyed and the hairdresser thought he broke my hair when he blow dried it and it exploded into frizz. I also walked by the local Mickey-D's, selling something called a Texas burger that looked like it may kill you automatically. Next came the walk to 5 Ship's Women's Dormitory and Golf Studios:
Don't just walk. Run, like the little green man (in the wrong direction...he's headed back to the train station on this sign. Bad little green man. Hiding in a train will likely end badly for you).
As I walked I noticed a ton of economic development. The town's really been growing. And that building they were making when we were there? Another restaurant, while the bento place (flower logo) is renovating. The graffiti you see behind the sign isn't graffiti; it's informing you that the place is under construction, as is obvious by the fact that there is no door and someone was sanding the walls:
and the flower shop is still by the bento place:
And more good news; the old vegetable-seller farmer is still around. I bought some delicious carrots which made delicious curry and will make delicious...carrots? I really don't know many carrot recipes for the girl who owns rice, soy sauce, and Toppo. I guess I could boil them? Salad, but I don't trust base vegetables...
Giraffe-san makes another appearance! I am not obsessed with it. Not at all. He sits opposite of the pathway from the station, by the way. Walking, walking.
The old Denny's is now a Jonathan's. Not that that makes me sad. Japanese Denny's are far too Japanese. And....walking...I go right, by the way. Unseen is a 7-11.
Good to know they still haven't updated that sign from the early 90's. 
Did I mention that 5 Ships is on the top of a long, winding hill? That wasn't fun when it was 90-some degrees out with 100% humidity. I much more enjoyed it in 40-degree weather.
Hill! To the left, with the yellow roof is some form of junk shop that has never, in my memory, been open.
Look! We're at the top of the hill. The office should be just ahead, then it's only a block to the dorms. 
New sign. Sweet. Much classier than when I lived there. Then...
What's this? I seem to recall this alleyway being smaller and featuring another steep hill. Not flat. And what are these?
These are not dorms. These are very emphatically new apartments and townhouses. There are small tricycles in fenced yards and nameplates on gates. No red gates, courtyards, or college-age girls to be seen. No security cameras or giant concrete fence. Apparently, 5 Ships turned itself just into a golf studio and sold the dorms for profit, which were then torn down. Some of the new buildings aren't fully up yet! And really? Yuppie apartments located near the middle and elementary schools? Couldn't you do better? Like a ramen shop that's not 20 minutes away or an addition to the humongous graveyard that area backs into? At least it's not a driving range...
That fully explains all the 'omg. foreigner!' looks I got, but makes me sad. I liked those dorms and now I feel homeless, even though I definitely no longer live there. After that wonderful revelation, I headed up to the local elementary school and graveyard, then to the grocery store in a vain attempt to find a specific cereal brand (bleh. Did get a 2010 dayplanner on sale, though!) and relive the walk of death up the two more different hills to get to it. And, I'll admit, so I could finally have a picture of the OK Supaa logo:
Just looking at it makes me feel better! That's right, my supermarket was called the OK Supaa, even though it's two floors and very so much more than OK. I basically spent a few hours wandering around Ikuta (hiiiii graveyard! Hiiii residential areas and freaked-out residents!) before realizing that I was starving and eating at the ramen place that even two years ago, when foreigners populated the local dorms, was a place to be stared at a lot if you weren't Japanese. Not surprisingly, I was stared at, but my tonkastu ramen was more than worth it. 
Why, yes; this is the wall in front of the elementary school. Yes; it is adorable. And this? This is the town as seen from the top of the graveyard. 
And, to end this on a sweet note, the orange grove in the park near 5 Ships' office. (heheh. Bad pun!). Yes; those are real oranges on the trees. Even I'm confused as it is still January and it does snow in this country. Whatever. Makes just about as much sense as placing an orange grove in a bamboo forest in a park in the first place. 
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Ikuta. Now you all know what that place I never shut up about looks like. In detail. But, if you want, there's more pics on the facebook. I really did take a lot. Most of those aren't pictures of the street though. I saved the truly boring ones for you ^_^. Next time, your heroine takes on Sagamino in Ebina, where she now lives. Will she survive the park and the cluster of old men interested in the book she's reading? Will the Gorilla Pachinko parlor win her over with its subtle advertising?! Will she be able to navigate the grocery store?!! What is that strange map she was given??!! Find out when you tune in for EBINA: The Industrial City of Doom!
It's like a Suica, but without the penguin mascot. Still confused? This is like a prepaid debit card for trains. Instead of buying a ticket to a specific place, I stick a bunch of money on the card, and smack it on the train gates, where it tracks where I go and deducts the money from my card. I can stick more on at almost any train station. Most people carry them in their wallets and just whack those against the gates, but mine's huge, so I need to find a smaller case or something for it.Anyway, once I got my card, I headed over there without any problem and began my picture-taking frenzy to make up for all the pictures I didn't take a few years ago when I actually lived there. I apologize in advance, since some of this will likely only make real sense to a few of you, but that's ok with me. I just reeeeaaalllly want to show you all my old home, so I took over fifty pictures of it; that's normal, right?
The station entrance, something I saw almost every day for four months. Odakyu lines has a new logo. Isn't it spiffy?
I found the hair salon, Harmonia, where I once had my hair dyed and the hairdresser thought he broke my hair when he blow dried it and it exploded into frizz. I also walked by the local Mickey-D's, selling something called a Texas burger that looked like it may kill you automatically. Next came the walk to 5 Ship's Women's Dormitory and Golf Studios:
Don't just walk. Run, like the little green man (in the wrong direction...he's headed back to the train station on this sign. Bad little green man. Hiding in a train will likely end badly for you).As I walked I noticed a ton of economic development. The town's really been growing. And that building they were making when we were there? Another restaurant, while the bento place (flower logo) is renovating. The graffiti you see behind the sign isn't graffiti; it's informing you that the place is under construction, as is obvious by the fact that there is no door and someone was sanding the walls:
and the flower shop is still by the bento place:
And more good news; the old vegetable-seller farmer is still around. I bought some delicious carrots which made delicious curry and will make delicious...carrots? I really don't know many carrot recipes for the girl who owns rice, soy sauce, and Toppo. I guess I could boil them? Salad, but I don't trust base vegetables...
Giraffe-san makes another appearance! I am not obsessed with it. Not at all. He sits opposite of the pathway from the station, by the way. Walking, walking.
The old Denny's is now a Jonathan's. Not that that makes me sad. Japanese Denny's are far too Japanese. And....walking...I go right, by the way. Unseen is a 7-11.
Good to know they still haven't updated that sign from the early 90's. 
Did I mention that 5 Ships is on the top of a long, winding hill? That wasn't fun when it was 90-some degrees out with 100% humidity. I much more enjoyed it in 40-degree weather.
Hill! To the left, with the yellow roof is some form of junk shop that has never, in my memory, been open.
Look! We're at the top of the hill. The office should be just ahead, then it's only a block to the dorms. 
New sign. Sweet. Much classier than when I lived there. Then...
What's this? I seem to recall this alleyway being smaller and featuring another steep hill. Not flat. And what are these?These are not dorms. These are very emphatically new apartments and townhouses. There are small tricycles in fenced yards and nameplates on gates. No red gates, courtyards, or college-age girls to be seen. No security cameras or giant concrete fence. Apparently, 5 Ships turned itself just into a golf studio and sold the dorms for profit, which were then torn down. Some of the new buildings aren't fully up yet! And really? Yuppie apartments located near the middle and elementary schools? Couldn't you do better? Like a ramen shop that's not 20 minutes away or an addition to the humongous graveyard that area backs into? At least it's not a driving range...
That fully explains all the 'omg. foreigner!' looks I got, but makes me sad. I liked those dorms and now I feel homeless, even though I definitely no longer live there. After that wonderful revelation, I headed up to the local elementary school and graveyard, then to the grocery store in a vain attempt to find a specific cereal brand (bleh. Did get a 2010 dayplanner on sale, though!) and relive the walk of death up the two more different hills to get to it. And, I'll admit, so I could finally have a picture of the OK Supaa logo:
Just looking at it makes me feel better! That's right, my supermarket was called the OK Supaa, even though it's two floors and very so much more than OK. I basically spent a few hours wandering around Ikuta (hiiiii graveyard! Hiiii residential areas and freaked-out residents!) before realizing that I was starving and eating at the ramen place that even two years ago, when foreigners populated the local dorms, was a place to be stared at a lot if you weren't Japanese. Not surprisingly, I was stared at, but my tonkastu ramen was more than worth it. 
Why, yes; this is the wall in front of the elementary school. Yes; it is adorable. And this? This is the town as seen from the top of the graveyard. 
And, to end this on a sweet note, the orange grove in the park near 5 Ships' office. (heheh. Bad pun!). Yes; those are real oranges on the trees. Even I'm confused as it is still January and it does snow in this country. Whatever. Makes just about as much sense as placing an orange grove in a bamboo forest in a park in the first place. 
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Ikuta. Now you all know what that place I never shut up about looks like. In detail. But, if you want, there's more pics on the facebook. I really did take a lot. Most of those aren't pictures of the street though. I saved the truly boring ones for you ^_^. Next time, your heroine takes on Sagamino in Ebina, where she now lives. Will she survive the park and the cluster of old men interested in the book she's reading? Will the Gorilla Pachinko parlor win her over with its subtle advertising?! Will she be able to navigate the grocery store?!! What is that strange map she was given??!! Find out when you tune in for EBINA: The Industrial City of Doom!
15 January 2010
Week One
This post brought to you by melonpan, food of the gods. Also, this brand "is reputed to as a good taste." I love you, Japan. You come up with the best signs. "Emergency Egress Plan." Now, to teach the Americans the word egress.
I'm done with my first week of interning and, so far, I'm loving it.
I have my own cubby in the break room/back office, binders full of info, and a notebook featuring 'Binky the Space Cat' for, well, notes. Our tech just left yesterday, so there are five others working at the library, including the director, four of whom are nationals. I've also met a volunteer, who does storyhour every week.
WARNING: Libraryese beyond this point!
The first few days, I got a tour of the library and the classrooms in it for the colleges, as well as a tour of the rest of MWR offices and buildings, then did some shelving and practiced with the catalog system by taking some books out of circulation. I also got a tour of the rest of the base and a meal at the officer's club, where I'm rather sure I'm not usually allowed. I started working on my big, big project, looking at all the current records, which were recently merged onto another system, and fixing the problems. At this point, I'm literally grabbing kid's paperbacks off the shelves in bunches, then working on each record, since the searching functions never pull up everything (No one knows why. Only two of the five E BAI's showed up when calling up E BAI, but they all showed up under an author search...etc...). Obviously, this is flawed, since kids are in the kids' room all day and things will be checked out, but I can run a date-edited report after going through the alphabet once to get the ones I missed. As part of this, I'm also looking to see if/when every item has been checked out and whether it needs repair or replacement.
Other than that, I get to sit in on various meetings, including a base-wide marketing meeting about holidays, where I watched the Japanese club owner argue that St. Patrick's Day is about Irish food with someone who doesn't want to get yelled at by officers again for there being no drinking specials on the holiday. I also get to work on programming and display ideas for these various holidays (both American and Japanese) , including Teen Tech Week and Military Child Month, which, not surprisingly, is a big deal around here, and happens to fall along with Kodomo Day, for extra kid-celebrating. And, I had my very-first Japanese meeting with a rep from 3m, who thought I knew what I was doing; it was amusing, since I'm still not even sure how the current magnetic gates work or how many people the library sees in a day.
Look! Business card! English side not shown to protect guy's privacy, since I assume most of you can't read this side and don't want to call Japan.
Yesterday was Thursday, which is storyhour day, so I sat in on that and helped out a bit. Our tech is usually the head of it, but it was her last day, so her replacement was helping. A volunteer, Rie-san, comes in to read, and they sing activity songs (The insy-weensy spider...it's been a while) before making a craft based on one of the books they read. Usually about 15 kids show up, since that's the room's occupancy limit, but a new batch of people had just come in and all the wives travel in packs, so there were ~30 kids, speaking three different languages while their parents futilely attempted to convince them to stick to language X and use their glue on the right side of the paper. They're all so cute! I ended up helping one girl finish her project (a flip book of The Very Hungry Caterpillar) while her mother watched her hyperactive brother; she put exactly four drops of glue on every piece of paper and yelled at her neighbor for putting too much glue on his (to be fair, so did his mom). And next week Rie-san won't be in, so I get to read! Here's hoping someone else picks out the books for me, since I only know what the library has up to COL in the paperbacks...
LIBRARYESE done.
Now for life outside of the library. I don't have much of that, yet, especially since it gets dark around 5. But, the commissary (read: base grocery store) evening ID-check guy knows who I am, so that's one less person to show my letter of permission and passport to... The maid cleans my room daily, so it's made me compulsively neat since I feel that only I should be the only one picking up my messes. Plus, she keeps tucking my stuffed toy into my covers, which makes me feel bad even though it's adorable. The TV is all American stations, which is disappointing (no J-comedies and morning anime for me) and makes me wonder about the NDF forces on base. Do they have separate channels or do they suffer through the same ones as me? I mean, there's an AF/N channel that talks about the flu vaccine and domestic violence a lot and airs The Daily Show and The Colbert Report (I don't know if they see the irony of this choice).
My care bear, all tucked in. Today, the pillow were arranged around her. I don't know whether to be mortified that someone is making my bed every day or what.
I have a three-day weekend, so I'm going to explore this weekend! I'm thinking Ikuta, Sophia, and discovering what city my base exit actually leads me into. I need to find some good ramen places nearby and I want to see what those mountains in the near distance are. I also noticed on my train map that I'm rather close to Fuji-san. It's been in the high-fourties almost all week from about 9 'til sundown, even though there's still ice and frost in the mornings; this means I won't freeze while wandering various cities. I'll takes lots of pictures!
And, to end, Rufus showing off my way of getting Vitamin C--C.C. Lemon pop. It tastes awesome but is fizzy and tangy like crazy and I have a feeling that it may have many of the same properties as battery acid. I don't quite get how it can have so much vitamin c in it, but I don't question something that good.
I'm done with my first week of interning and, so far, I'm loving it.
I have my own cubby in the break room/back office, binders full of info, and a notebook featuring 'Binky the Space Cat' for, well, notes. Our tech just left yesterday, so there are five others working at the library, including the director, four of whom are nationals. I've also met a volunteer, who does storyhour every week.
WARNING: Libraryese beyond this point!
The first few days, I got a tour of the library and the classrooms in it for the colleges, as well as a tour of the rest of MWR offices and buildings, then did some shelving and practiced with the catalog system by taking some books out of circulation. I also got a tour of the rest of the base and a meal at the officer's club, where I'm rather sure I'm not usually allowed. I started working on my big, big project, looking at all the current records, which were recently merged onto another system, and fixing the problems. At this point, I'm literally grabbing kid's paperbacks off the shelves in bunches, then working on each record, since the searching functions never pull up everything (No one knows why. Only two of the five E BAI's showed up when calling up E BAI, but they all showed up under an author search...etc...). Obviously, this is flawed, since kids are in the kids' room all day and things will be checked out, but I can run a date-edited report after going through the alphabet once to get the ones I missed. As part of this, I'm also looking to see if/when every item has been checked out and whether it needs repair or replacement.
Other than that, I get to sit in on various meetings, including a base-wide marketing meeting about holidays, where I watched the Japanese club owner argue that St. Patrick's Day is about Irish food with someone who doesn't want to get yelled at by officers again for there being no drinking specials on the holiday. I also get to work on programming and display ideas for these various holidays (both American and Japanese) , including Teen Tech Week and Military Child Month, which, not surprisingly, is a big deal around here, and happens to fall along with Kodomo Day, for extra kid-celebrating. And, I had my very-first Japanese meeting with a rep from 3m, who thought I knew what I was doing; it was amusing, since I'm still not even sure how the current magnetic gates work or how many people the library sees in a day.
Look! Business card! English side not shown to protect guy's privacy, since I assume most of you can't read this side and don't want to call Japan.Yesterday was Thursday, which is storyhour day, so I sat in on that and helped out a bit. Our tech is usually the head of it, but it was her last day, so her replacement was helping. A volunteer, Rie-san, comes in to read, and they sing activity songs (The insy-weensy spider...it's been a while) before making a craft based on one of the books they read. Usually about 15 kids show up, since that's the room's occupancy limit, but a new batch of people had just come in and all the wives travel in packs, so there were ~30 kids, speaking three different languages while their parents futilely attempted to convince them to stick to language X and use their glue on the right side of the paper. They're all so cute! I ended up helping one girl finish her project (a flip book of The Very Hungry Caterpillar) while her mother watched her hyperactive brother; she put exactly four drops of glue on every piece of paper and yelled at her neighbor for putting too much glue on his (to be fair, so did his mom). And next week Rie-san won't be in, so I get to read! Here's hoping someone else picks out the books for me, since I only know what the library has up to COL in the paperbacks...
LIBRARYESE done.
Now for life outside of the library. I don't have much of that, yet, especially since it gets dark around 5. But, the commissary (read: base grocery store) evening ID-check guy knows who I am, so that's one less person to show my letter of permission and passport to... The maid cleans my room daily, so it's made me compulsively neat since I feel that only I should be the only one picking up my messes. Plus, she keeps tucking my stuffed toy into my covers, which makes me feel bad even though it's adorable. The TV is all American stations, which is disappointing (no J-comedies and morning anime for me) and makes me wonder about the NDF forces on base. Do they have separate channels or do they suffer through the same ones as me? I mean, there's an AF/N channel that talks about the flu vaccine and domestic violence a lot and airs The Daily Show and The Colbert Report (I don't know if they see the irony of this choice).
My care bear, all tucked in. Today, the pillow were arranged around her. I don't know whether to be mortified that someone is making my bed every day or what.I have a three-day weekend, so I'm going to explore this weekend! I'm thinking Ikuta, Sophia, and discovering what city my base exit actually leads me into. I need to find some good ramen places nearby and I want to see what those mountains in the near distance are. I also noticed on my train map that I'm rather close to Fuji-san. It's been in the high-fourties almost all week from about 9 'til sundown, even though there's still ice and frost in the mornings; this means I won't freeze while wandering various cities. I'll takes lots of pictures!
And, to end, Rufus showing off my way of getting Vitamin C--C.C. Lemon pop. It tastes awesome but is fizzy and tangy like crazy and I have a feeling that it may have many of the same properties as battery acid. I don't quite get how it can have so much vitamin c in it, but I don't question something that good.
10 January 2010
More pictures...
Rufus, the traveling naked mole rat, shows off my pan and the coffee supplies, including ramen. Never mind that this brand of ramen isn't actually sold in Japan... Look for Rufus in further adventures. One day, he may even see outside my apartment.
My complicated lightswitch. You have to put the door keycard into the slot in order to operate any of the lights in the apartment. It does save electricity by being sure that you will never leave your lights on when you're gone. Plus, I'll always know where I put my key.
The Trip
Here I am in Atsugi!
I woke up at 3:15am in Buffalo on the 8th, and arrived at my apartment at 8:45pm the 9th.
For those of you who are counting, that is well in access of 24 hours. Here's how the trip went:
Now it's midday on the 10th (a Sunday). Luckily, my mentor gave me some granola bars, chips, and coffee last night, so I had breakfast. I've exchanged money (after being directed to two different locations that in fact did not exchange money), shopped at the comissary and took the long walk to the town's grocery store where I relived my old experiences at the OK Supaa when the cashier asked my whether I was sure I didn't need to buy bags to put my food in, complete with gestures. I had to show her my bags to convince her I was ok. I grabbed lunch at the local Lawson's (a combini/convenience store), where a little girl swinging on the door handles held it open for me and looked far too excited when I told her 'thank you.' It, by the way, is about 50 degrees out and I got away with wearing a sweater, although most of the people are wearing light to heavy coats.
My packet of sandwiches informed me that "We hope you can choose the best one for yourself," hinting that I wasn't supposed to eat all three.
I've unpacked and will go searching for a cup (strangely not provided although all the rest of my cooking materials and silverwear was) and some chopsticks before visiting the library since neither grocery store saw the need to carry these items. I start work at 9 tomorrow and am far too excited by this process. I've included pictures of my rooms at the bottom, if you wish to see them.
The view outside my room. Don't let the bare trees fool you--it's rather warm out, although it apparently snowed in Tokyo Christmas week.
My bedroom. There's a closet off to the other side, and all the plugs are US-standard.
The living room, already a mess. The counter-thing is actually a bar, with a few stools underneath; it separates the kitchen area from the living room.
The kitchen. Unlike my old Japanese microwave, this one only makes things warm, but I think I can deal ^_^. It came with a pot, pan, silverwear, knives and cooking tools, two plates, two bowls, and a packet of instant ramen. No cups, though...
The bathroom, a nice combination of Japanese and American styles; it came complete with towels and toiletries. The sink nozzle folds in and the sink itself doubles as a wash basin.
I woke up at 3:15am in Buffalo on the 8th, and arrived at my apartment at 8:45pm the 9th.
For those of you who are counting, that is well in access of 24 hours. Here's how the trip went:
- Arrive at airport requisite two hours early only to learn that my airline's check-in stand doesn't open until 5:30.
- Sit and wait for 45 minutes
- Get bags checked and signed in, then go through security
- Wait some more until flight is supposed to leave at 7:05
- 7:15 are informed that something is wrong with the tire plane
- Awesome clerk-guy changes my flight over to another airline's really quick, then I run to that gate and catch the plane. Am informed that my bags might not come to Japan on the same day I do. Oh, well; it's only a 2 1/2 hour trip back to Narita airport...
- Arrive at Chicago around 8:30
- Learn that my luggage did in fact get put on the plane to Japan.
- 10:30 Get on plane.
- 11:45 Plane actually leaves...yay, ice.
- ....traveling on planes makes me ill and I don't sleep. I do watch a few movies and How I Met Your Mother, thanks to the little TVs in front of every seat. The seat next to me is empty so I have both to loll around in., It's incredibly nice. We get fed three times in 13 hours.
- Arrive at Narita in Terminal 2 and have issues with customs because I don't have a military ID and can't say 'internship' in Japanese. (note: it's こうじょうじっしゅう, Koujsshyuu)
- Am allowed to stay in country after confusing poor customs-guy.
- Get baggage and find my mentor. Yay!
- Sign in and wait for shuttle to base, since the trains would actually take longer.
- Learn that I need to carry two pieces of paper and my passport in order to: get on and off base, use the commissary (read: glorified grocery store), use the NEX, exchange money...etc...
- 6:15 Get on shuttle and regret having two large suitcases.
- Fail at not falling asleep and figuring out where we are (I think we passed Odaiba, but I'm not all that sure)
- Late 8pm Get on base and sign into my lodging. My lodging is temporary, so I'm actually living in what doubles as the base's hotel (Dad had claimed this to be true earlier but I thought he had looked up the wrong thing. Ooops).
- Sleep.
Now it's midday on the 10th (a Sunday). Luckily, my mentor gave me some granola bars, chips, and coffee last night, so I had breakfast. I've exchanged money (after being directed to two different locations that in fact did not exchange money), shopped at the comissary and took the long walk to the town's grocery store where I relived my old experiences at the OK Supaa when the cashier asked my whether I was sure I didn't need to buy bags to put my food in, complete with gestures. I had to show her my bags to convince her I was ok. I grabbed lunch at the local Lawson's (a combini/convenience store), where a little girl swinging on the door handles held it open for me and looked far too excited when I told her 'thank you.' It, by the way, is about 50 degrees out and I got away with wearing a sweater, although most of the people are wearing light to heavy coats.
My packet of sandwiches informed me that "We hope you can choose the best one for yourself," hinting that I wasn't supposed to eat all three.
I've unpacked and will go searching for a cup (strangely not provided although all the rest of my cooking materials and silverwear was) and some chopsticks before visiting the library since neither grocery store saw the need to carry these items. I start work at 9 tomorrow and am far too excited by this process. I've included pictures of my rooms at the bottom, if you wish to see them.
The view outside my room. Don't let the bare trees fool you--it's rather warm out, although it apparently snowed in Tokyo Christmas week.
My bedroom. There's a closet off to the other side, and all the plugs are US-standard.
The living room, already a mess. The counter-thing is actually a bar, with a few stools underneath; it separates the kitchen area from the living room.
The kitchen. Unlike my old Japanese microwave, this one only makes things warm, but I think I can deal ^_^. It came with a pot, pan, silverwear, knives and cooking tools, two plates, two bowls, and a packet of instant ramen. No cups, though...
The bathroom, a nice combination of Japanese and American styles; it came complete with towels and toiletries. The sink nozzle folds in and the sink itself doubles as a wash basin.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
